One thing to keep in mind about the terminal:

In Linux, many GUI tools are simply pretty interfaces for the terminal. That’s why folks tell you that you’ll need the terminal occasionally, no matter what: you might need to type in commands that don’t already have a friendly GUI.

The terminal isn’t that scary, though! Every big distro has a support community. And if you need to do something in the terminal? Someone else has definitely needed to do the same thing, so you won’t need to figure it out on your own.

I mostly use Bazzite in front of a big TV. When I first set up the computer, I needed to use the terminal to configure a couple of things related to network shares. Later, I used it to help specific devices wake up the computer from sleep. It’s been months since then, and I’m not sure I’ve needed the terminal for anything else.

Use it as an opportunity to learn how your computer works. It’s really satisfying to understand how things happen.

Check thrift shops.

I’ve seen plenty of Chromebooks and older Windows laptops for $10-25.

MX is my preferred distro to put on them, though there are plenty of good, small distros.

Does it have to be on the Play Store?

I recently started using the Fossify Music Player. It’s on F-Droid.

Fark

There’s always Creality.

I don’t know that they’re good. But so far I haven’t seen anything about them being evil? I’m open to being wrong, though.

TIL that my FDM printer should now be called FFF - because Stratasys owns the trademark of the term “FDM,” and has been known to abuse folks who try to use that term.

Coincidentally, Stratasys is also Israeli.

I’ve been using Bazzite for months.

If it’s a gaming PC, you want the OS to be stable and reliable. Bazzite is that.

Not saying your other choices aren’t, just that there’s no reason to be afraid of Bazzite.

Yoursgrub

Even at that age, some computers can do plenty.

I built my “old” gaming desktop in 2009. It currently runs Linux with Plasma. I still use it to do 3D modeling for 3D printing.

They seem to be Italian.

MX is a branch off antiX, and they put “anti-fascist” at the top of their homepage.

I was just tossing out a random number based on a bunch of posts I’ve seen. Don’t overthink it. :)

Speaking just from my experience:

It’s small, it’s stable, and it supports legacy hardware.

In addition, its Xfce implementation is polished and easy to use. It has a straightforward package installation utility.

I’ve used a whole bunch of lightweight Linux distros, and MX’s level of polish is uncommon for a distro that can easily live on a 16GB drive

MX has become my go-to for low-power, outdated computers.

It runs on a toaster. It installs on 64-bit systems with 32-bit EFI. The base install supports touchscreens. It fits on a 16GB SSD with room to spare. 2GB RAM is plenty. It has an active development community.

If your computer is less 5 years old, there are better options. But if you’re trying to keep a Chromebook out of the junk yard, MX is a good choice.

The biggest mistake one can make with Linux?

Using windows instead.

My pre-UEFI system can boot from a USB drive.

Most still-functional ones can.

What’s great is neither of you are wrong from your own perspectives - and both of you are free to share your message and preferences.

Skate-period? Skate-dot? Skate-point?

What a stupid name for a game.

It’s not in the bios, it’s a system configuration.

https://askubuntu.com/questions/848698/wake-up-from-suspend-using-usb-device#848699

https://askubuntu.com/questions/848698/wake-up-from-suspend-using-usb-device

Here you go, I found the links I started from. I’m on Bazzite, but Fedora and Debian seem to work similarly around this.

Edit to add: I just looked up Cachy, I see that it’s Arch. I’m not sure if Arch configures this in the same way, but hopefully this will at least lead you In the right direction.

I don’t remember all the steps, but it had nothing to do with the controller itself.

I had to edit system configuration - I entered the identifier of the motherboard USB device, and I told the system to allow it to wake the system from sleep. I’d have to search for the actual steps.

You’re welcome! Sometimes I wake it up with my wireless keyboard, other times I wake it up with the Thunderobot controller. I haven’t gotten Bluetooth activity to wake it up, but then again I haven’t tried hard.

I had to tweak the configuration so that it would wake up via activity from a USB device. But that’s just part of getting used to managing your system’s configuration, right? :)